Funding worth €100,000 is being provided for increased Holocaust education in secondary schools across the country, the Government has announced.
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Helen McEntee said Ireland will provide the funding to the Auschwitz Birkenau Foundation to support its Holocaust education programme.
This programme will be made available to secondary schools as part of the Government’s commitment to increasing Holocaust education and awareness. The announcement coincides with International Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday.
A recent survey found almost one in 10 Irish people aged between 18 and 29 believe the Holocaust is a “myth” while 19 per cent in this age group believe it happened but its scale has been “greatly exaggerated.
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Half of the Irish adult population does not know that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, the survey found.
More than a quarter of the 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed believed that fewer than two million were killed, according to the survey, and half had encountered Holocaust denial or distortion online.
Commissioned by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference), the online survey was conducted by the Global Strategy group and involved 1,000 participants aged 18 years and over selected from a database of Irish people who have agreed to take part in surveys.
Ms McEntee said young people across Ireland, and the rest of the world, must be exposed to the “brutal reality” of the Holocaust.
“Holocaust education remains a crucial tool in helping our students and all in society grasp the murderous scale of the Holocaust and the ways we can prevent it occurring again,” she said.
[ Taoiseach criticises ‘shocking’ level of ignorance about HolocaustOpens in new window ]
“I am working with Minister for Education and Youth, Hildegarde Naughton, to ensure our young people grasp the murderous scale of the Holocaust and the ways we can prevent it occurring again.
“This is particularly important given the deeply worrying trends identified in a recent survey carried out on Holocaust awareness and education in Ireland.’’
Ms Naughton said it was vital that the horror of the Holocaust was never forgotten or diminished.
“The work of the Auschwitz Birkenau Foundation keeps the memory and lessons of the Holocaust alive. It is so important for this to be made available to all secondary schools in Ireland,” she said.
“I would encourage teachers, as well as parents, to engage with young people so they understand the scale and brutality of the Holocaust.”
